Alberta Floods

A number of our AGC churches were affected by the recent flooding in Alberta. Here is a report from one of our pastors...

SOUTHERN ALBERTA FLOOD

The Black Diamond/Turner Valley Story

At 6:45 am on Thursday, June 20th/2013, our family was given 2 minutes to evacuate our home. The flood waters were pressing up against our house and we barely were able to drive our van out of the driveway of our Black Diamond home. Two days later we were allowed back on our street and to our home to see that we had 4 feet of water in our basement. That was the common story among so many of us in our area of the province.

That’s when the church kicked into high gear. Through the course of the days that followed, there were members of the Black Diamond Gospel Chapel in every single home – tearing our drywall, removing furniture, doing childcare so that others could work, providing a community meal at our church for all displaced families, etc. We felt so blessed to be a part of such a caring church family.

Samaritan’s Purse trained 5 of us to do some specialized mould removal and we were able to treat every home in Black Diamond.

In the midst of all of this, our church basement became a temporary food/clothing distribution center for our community and was well used in the early going.

The bridge got washed away between the towns of Black Diamond and Turner Valley as a result of the flood and was rebuilt in 3 weeks. The Alberta Government held a Bridge re-opening ceremony and asked me to dedicate it in prayer, which was my privilege to do.

3 weeks after the flood, we moved back into the upper floor of our home where we are currently ‘camping out’.

One other amazing side note to this story – we had never even considered purchasing a home here because of the price of housing in our area. However, the Lord opened a door for us to do just that and we will be in our very own home by mid-September.